James w



UNITED STATES PATENT oEEioE.

JAMES W. BEEBE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

y MANUFACTURING HATS.

Specicaton of Letters Patent No. 14,343, dated March 4, 1856.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, JAMES l/V. BEEBE, of Brooklyn, in the State of NewYork, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Hats, ofwhich the following, is a full, clear, and exact description, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, making partv of thisspecification, in which- Figure 1, is a vertical section of my saidimprov-ed hat; and Fig. 2, a like section with the covering separatedfrom the body.

The saine letters indicate like parts in v the two figures.

My invention consists in making hats by covering a stiii'ened hat bodywith a separate felt, felted to the form of the body and secured theretowith hatters varnish or other equivalent adhesive substance.

I make a thin hat body a in the usual way and stiifen it in th-e usualmanner of stiifening hats. I then makey a separate cover o of fur orother bers which will felt and after reducing it to the orm of the bodyby felting, and coating the surface of the hat body with hatters7varnish or other equivalent adhesive substance, I draw the cover Z),over the top, crown, and the top and bottom of the rim, and y'extend theedge around to the inside of the crown, taking care to draw the entiresurface smooth and to make it adhere to the varnish or other cement. Thehat is then lined and trimmed in the usual or any other suitable Way. Inthis manner by lgiving the stiltness required to the body alone insteadof the entire hat, I am enabled to make the covering as well as the bodyvery thin and light, and hence the whole hat much lighter than when theentire hat is stiffened as heretofore in making felt hats. And as thecovering is not saturated with the stiftening material a much morebeautiful surface can be obtained, a result long desired in making felthats particularly of the kind known as cassimere hats.

It will be Obvious from the foregoing that instead of putting on thecovering b in a single piece of felt, it may be put on in separatepieces, such as the top and crown felted to the required form; and theupper and under surface of the rim, so that the top and crown will be inone piece, and the top and bottom of the rim in one or two pieces, but Iprefer to make the entire cover of one piece properly felted to therequired form, in which case the binding of the edge can be dispensedwith.

mat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is-Making hats with a stitfened body combined with a felt covering reducedto the required form by felting, and put over and attached thereto withhatters varnish or lother equivalent adhesive substances, substantiallyas and for the purpose specified. JAMES w. BEEEE.

Witnesses:

l/VM. H. BISHOP, ANDREW DE LACY.

